i^anbi^S 







/ 



"Hattle ^lag J|)a^ 



Huouet 10, 1894. 



ff 




Ceremonials BtteuMng tbe 
ITranster of tbe... 

Battle jFlacjs of Hovva TRcGiments 

from tbe arsenal to tbe Capitol. 



...IReport... 



®f tbc 






appointed bB tbc 
Cvvcnt^sfourtb (3encra[ Bsscmbl^ 



TIo proviOe Cases anb Xlranster tbe 



Howa Battle jflaos 



Jfrom rbe arsenal to tbe State CapitoL 



.16,6 



2)es /iDoincs: 

S- 1R. Conawav, State iprintcr. 

1896. 



state of Howa, 
Bt>jutant=(5enerar5 ©ffice. 

Des Moines, January 14, 1896. 
To the Ilonoi'dble General Assemhly of loirei: 

Gentlemen — We have the honor to herewith submit, 
as the committee named therein, a report of our proceed- 
ings in carrA'ing out the provisions of the following act 
of the Twent3'-fourth General Assembly of Iowa, to-wit: 

"i?6? it enarfed by the General Assenibly of the State of Iowa: 

' 'Section 1. That the adjutant-general and the curator 
of historical collections, with the advice and consent of 
the executive council, shall cause the colors, standards 
and battle flags borne b}" Iowa regiments and batteries 
during the war of the rebellion to be placed in her- 
metically sealed glass cases, in such manner as to display 
them to the best advantage, and to preserve them as far 
as possible from all injury thereto, and place them in 
appropriate locations in the corridors of the capitol; so 
much of said corridors as ma}^ be necessarj^ is hereby 
appropriated for the purpose. 

"Sec. 2. The sum of three thousand dollars, or so 
much thereof as may be necessarj-, is hereb}^ appropriated 
out of an}- fund in the state treasury not otherwise 
appropriated, for said purpose, and that all accounts for 
the same shall be audited by the executive council. ' ' 

Approved April 7, 1892. 

For the "Introduction'' to this report, the acknowl- 
edgments of your committee are due to Maj. S. H. M. 
Byers. Ver}- i^espectfully, 



L. a.o-r^ 



Adjutant- Gene red. 




Curedor of Historieal Collections. 



♦♦.(Broup ®ne-.- 

No- I — First Cavalry. 

No. 2 — Second lofantry- 
No- 3 — Second Cavalry. 
No. 4— First Battery. 
No. 5 — F'l'st Infantry. 
No. 6 — Third iQfantry. 
No. 7 — Fourtb Infantry- 
No. 8— Fifth Infaotry- 
No. 9 — Sixth Infantry. 

No. 10 — Seventh Infantry. 



NTRODUCTION. 




WAS a noble resolution that led to the 
proper preservation of Iowa's war flags. 
There was no danger of people forgetting 
the soldiers, or their sacrifices, but these 
flags, that were emblems of great deeds, 
might fade away. History hardly relates 
Iowa .^ w-i- - of another such scene as was witnessed in 
Iowa's capital on the 10th of August, 1894. That day 
saw the same soldiers who had carried the flags in battle 
bear them to their last resting place. It was thirty 
years nearly since the war — almost an average lifetime — 
and all these years the battle flags of the state had been 
hidden away in the old arsenal by the river. A few had 
been in museums ; a few, honored as souvenirs of the 
great war, were treasured as so much gold in private 
homes, where happy children pointed to their shinj^ 
folds and said, "M}^ father carried yonder flag." Now 
all the flags, banners, and guidons that had been through 
the war from Iowa were to be gathered together, and 
with acclaims of honor, and amidst tears and prayers, be 
borne to the capitol. It was a day to be remembered 
for a lifetime. So long as those who witnessed the 
touching spectacle live, they will recall to their own 
hearts, and tell to their children, how they saw 5,000 
veteran soldiers of the great war come and march again 
under the flags they once bore in battle. They will tell 
you of the pathos of the scene — of the white-haired men, 
who, in their youth, had borne these flags in the fierce 



14 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

storm of conflict, now again taking them in their hands 
and blessing them and kissing them. The heart throbs 
and suppressed tears of many a soldier touching again 
the folds of these flags never will be known. There 
were mothers looking on whose sons lay dead on south- 
ern battle fields; and sisters whose brothers filled name- 
less graves in dark forests of the south. "My boy 
fell defending that flag," said an old man standing at 
the street-side, as the banner of his son's regiment 
passed by. The crowd about him gave way till the col- 
or-bearer could let the old man touch the sacred colors 
with his hands. Many hearts beat quick and many eyes 
were wet with tears. Yet this was the scene repeated 
and repeated all along Locust street, from Fifth street to 
the bridge, and from the bridge to the capitol. Many a 
white-haired mother from country farm or village looked 
on in silence as some flag was borne by, and with swell- 
ing hearts, and tearful eyes, thought of him whose grave 
she had never seen. 

Des Moines was filled with people, and the vast crowds 
that lined the streets where the flags were borne, had 
but a single thought. Patriotism and gratitude, and love 
of country swelled in every breast. There were no par- 
tisans. All men and women alike gazed on the tattered 
flags and thought of the past. They looked into the 
faces of the men marching and said, "These are they 
who stormed forts, charged batteries, waded through 
swamps, starved in southern prisons; their very blood 
this moment on the bullet ridden flags." None cheered, 
their hearts stirred too deep — they only felt — and a 
greater emotion few will ever feel this side of the grave. 
Here and there the little remnant of some army band 
played the very music to which these men kept step at 
Shiloh and Mission Ridge. The same drums, the same 
drummers, the same fifers, the tones that had been silent 
thirty years again caused the blood of the marching men 
to tingle as they touched elbows and with quickened step 
recalled the days when, as comrades and brothers, they 
went battleward to that same old tune. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

Locust street for a solid mile was full of men thinking- 
of other days. Where were the thousands who had 
touched elbows in the marching line, to that same music, 
to those same drums, thirty years ago? 

Twentj^-five thousand of Iowa's soldiers are dead. 
Ever}" man marching on Locust street that day thought 
of a comrade who once marched at his side to that tune, 
but who now slept in his soldier grave. Ahead of them 
in the line they saw the flags, torn and tattered, that 
they had borne over some rampart blazing with cannon. 
Then the flag was new, shin}" and glorious. Then they 
were making history, now the}" were memories — slowly 
receding- to the past. The world does not wait; time 
does not wait; the soldiers had their day, their glory and 
their death. The spectators must have theirs, too. These 
thousands of youths lining the sidewalks are thinking of 
the deeds and the glor}" of these veterans, and they pant 
for deeds and glory of their own. Will they be as brave, 
as true, as noble, as patriotic as these who are bearing 
their flags for the last time forever? All the vast crowd 
are thinking of these things, and to many the spectacle 
before them is of spectres with their flags marching on to 
the end. In a sense the}" are bidding them good-bye for- 
ever. It is the final obsequies of men who have made 
history. They will lay their flags down at the capitol, 
and generations will look at them and say: "There are 
the signs of their glory, but they are gone." 

The tinge of melancholy that seized on the multitudes 
of people almost silenced demonstration. Spite of the 
occasional cheers of soldiers on being handed the flags, 
spite of the drums and the bands in the procession, there 
was comparative silence, and a minor strain ran through 
every chord, touched every heart. The occasion was too 
great for noise; too many hearts throbbed with sad 
recollections, too many eyes filled with tears. 

At the head of the procession rode the gray-haired 
Colonel Shaw, a soldier of two wars, a hero of his com- 
mand, who rode with the blaze of musketry as coolly as 
now he rode to the capitol. 



16 ' BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

One hundred and thirty-five veterans walked in line 
bearing the old flags. Five thousand other gray-haired 
veterans, who had once defended these colors at the 
mouth of the deadly cannon, followed as a guard of honor, 
and what a guard it was! 

The blood of these men still stained the honored folds 
of the flags. These banners had never known defeat. 
They had been borne in a hundred battles — across the 
works of many a fort, but dishonor had never touched 
one of them. It is a proud, a noble record for Iowa, that 
her flags were always flags of honor and of victory. They 
were, like Iowa soldiers, at the front everywhere. 

When future generations shall gaze in silence upon the 
dim colors of the flags there in the capitol, let them 
reflect that eighty thousand Iowa men carried these 
emblems of a nation into battle, and that thirteen thou- 
sand heroes were maimed, slaughtered, or died in their 
defense. Let them reflect that no Iowa flag ever sur- 
rendered to equal numbers ; that not one of these banners 
ever was held aloft in a war of subjugation, nor for state 
aggrandizement. They were the signs of our own pres- 
ervation only — the symbols of a free people. They are 
dimmed, but by the blood of their defenders; and torn, 
but by a foe that thought more of human bondage than 
of the nation's life. 

It was noticeable that no captured flags of the enem}" 
were borne in the procession, j^et Iowa men had captured 
more flags than she had regiments. Hatred of foemen, 
revenge, were forgotten. On the other hand, there was 
no silly and hypocritical longing for the love and good 
will of those who had shot down comrades, starved help- 
less prisoners, and well-nigh murdered a nation. "Let 
God judge them and let us forget them"" was a senti- 
ment of fathers and mothers whose sons sleep in the 
woods of Tennessee or in the sands of Andersonville. 
That these sons should be forgotten and their brave 
deaths condoned at such a moment, was a crime against 
human nature. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

When Governor Jackson issued his proclamation 
declaring August the 10th a state holiday, that on that 
day the flags should be borne to the capitol in solemn, 
but glorious procession, there was universal gratitude 
and approval. It was the anniversary of the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, where Iowa's first blood was shed. It 
was decided that the battle flags at the arsenal should be 
taken possession of by the representatives of the Sons of 
Veterans and by them be handed over to the color-ser- 
geants who had borne them in battle; they in their turn 
carried them with glad hearts to the lines of veteran 
soldiers waiting in line to receive them with tears and 
blessings. Many had not seen these flags since the 
bloody battle's charge when, lying on the field wounded, 
they gave faint cheers for the symbols of their glory. 

Colonel Dungan, the lieutenant-governor of the state, 
had been selected to address the color-bearers at the 
arsenal, and his words teemed with patriotism and honor, 
for he too had been a noble soldier. 

When it had been announced in the press that the old 
color-guards, the very men who bore these flags through 
the dreadful war, should be the very men to carry them 
now in their last procession, a glad cheer went up over 
the state. These brave men, hidden away, pursuing 
their simple avocations on farm or in country village, 
silent as to their heroic deeds in their youth, were almost 
forgotten by the busy age. Now they came forward and 
plead for their rights — the honored privilege of once 
more carrying the old flag and touching its fading folds 
with their hands and their lips. Manj" and many a letter 
reached the committee of arrangements pathetic and 
tender to tears, written without the elegancies of rhet- 
oric or penmanship, j^et tenderly, touchingly pleading 
that the writers might carry the flag once more before 
they died. And it was their right. Their inelegancies 
of rhetoric and spelling were good enough in the days 
when cannon were firing and muskets blazing, and men 
were wanted to carry these flags into hostile lines and 
over the walls of death. They were good enough now. 



Ig BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

Thirty years had made a difference, too. They were 
young then; now many are old, some poor. The fleet- 
ing years had not allowed them to catch up with the 
opportunities they lost while absent serving their country. 

Civilians went ahead and got rich — rich even on the 
misfortunes of war. These soldiers lost their chance — 
many their health — many even their savings of boyhood. 
To many in that line a grateful nation had given a 
pension — it helped keep the wolf from the door — and yet 
was not a drop in the bucket to the hardships, the losses, 
the calamities that followed serving in a four years' war. 

In all this vast crowd there was none who did not 
rejoice in the help the nation had given, and who did not 
wish it had been more. There was no cry of fraud and 
big pensions; no people's servants in high places sneering 
at the cripples who had saved the country; no political 
sycophants and demagogues striving to reduce the sol- 
diers' little income. Ah! had some snarling creature on that 
10th of August raised his voice against pensioning the men 
who bore those flags he would have been stoned to death. 

The day was hot and sultry, but spite of the heat the 
long line of veterans gladly took up its march escorted 
by the National Guard, by Sons of Veterans, by soldiers 
from other states, by civic organizations, by bands of 
music and by the governor of the commonwealth and all 
his military family. As the line crossed the river and 
approached the capitol, its war flags waving, its blue- 
coated and white-haired legions keeping step to the 
music they had heard in battle, it was a spectacle never 
to be forgotten. Once it was like the funeral of some 
great conqueror. Rome had scarcely seen so grand a 
spectacle, for her triumphal entries were the return of 
professional soldiers who waged war for conquest, and in 
whose train men were led to bondage. This line, sol- 
emnly, oiorioush^, marching to Iowa's capitol, was the 
fragments of an army that had fought for the perpetuity 
of free institutions. The slaves that marched in its line 
were slaves no longer, but free men who in the ranks of 
the union army had battled for country. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The splendid arches under which the column moved, 
though bearing the names of honorable battles, still 
spoke of peace — good will to nierr. Many of the private 
citizens of the city decorated their places of business in 
a way that told of their appreciation of the day and the 
patriotism of their hearts. Flags floated everywhere, 
yet no flags were looked at save those faded and torn in 
the procession of the soldiers. 

When the marching line and the banners reached the 
east side of the capitol a great crowd of people already 
awaited them. The old flags and the color bearers and 
as many veterans as possible clustered together on the 
great east steps, where they were photographed, that 
children's children may know something of how their 
fathers and the flags looked on this day, greatest of all in 
Iowa's history. Then commenced the speaking exercises 
of the occasion. 

The committee on general arrangements had consisted 
of Gen. John R. Prime, the adjutant-general of the state; 
Capt. Charles Aldrich, curator of the historical society; 
Philip Schaller, department commander; Capt. C. H. 
Smith and Capt. J. P. Patrick, and by invitation, George 
A. Newman, commander of the Iowa Grand Army of the 
Republic. The secretary was Charles L. Longley, of the 
department of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

At different committee meetings everything had been 
arranged that could tend to make the day one of great 
honor, and now followed the opening address by the 
president of the day, Gen. J. W. Noble, himself one of 
Iowa's distinguished soldiers. 

Des Moines Union band followed with its strains of 
loyal music. There was a fervent invocation by the 
Rev. A. V. Kendrick, National Chaplain of the G. A. R., 
and an original poem by S. H. M. Byers, entitled "The 
Battle Flags of Iowa," and then came the principal 
address of the day, on the "Returning of the Flags," by 
Maj. John F. Lacey, member of congress, and a gallant 
officer of the old army. The response was by his excel- 
lency, Frank D. Jackson, governor of the state. Both 



20 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

addresses were listened to with joy and were received by 
the attending thousands with demonstrations of satis- 
faction. 

Martial music by Carper's drum corps followed the 
speeches, and Mrs. Jesse Cheek, of Des Moines, closed 
the exercises by singing the ' ' Star Spangled Banner. ' ' 

Now the flags were in the golden-domed capitol, in 
glass cases, hermetically sealed. There they will remain 
forever, where patriots can look upon them in ages to 
come. It was a fit place, in this noble building, this just 
pride of a great state, to put these honored and priceless 
treasures. In rooms near them are the written records 
of these soldiers' deeds; their enlistment papers; their 
discharges — Ah, too oft the records of their deaths. No 
patriot looking upon them but his heart will throb faster 
and truer; and no recollection of the war but will call up 
the memory of those two great patriots and public serv- 
ants, Adjutant-General Baker and Governor Kirkwood, 
who put these records here and who did more than all 
other public men of Iowa to make the path of an Iowa 
soldier a path of honor. Near by, too, stands that noble 
monument erected by a grateful people in honor of what 
these men did to save their country. What trio of war 
could more appropriately be together — these blood- 
stained flags, these glorious records, this monument of 
bronze and stone? And when gazing on them, let no 
future patriot forget the words of that great war gov- 
ernor when he said: "The heroism of our soldiers has 
made it a proud privilege to be a citizen of Iowa." 

That many of these war flags had been preserved to 
be honored on this great occasion had been due to the 
patriotic thoughtfulness of an Iowa woman. When Sen- 
ator John H. Gear was governor of Iowa, his wife saw 
these flags being destroyed by dust and time. With her 
own hands and with the aid of a few friends she tenderly 
covered each one with a fabric that should protect them 
and hold them together. The act was typical of the 
universal patriotism of Iowa women in war times. The 
women of Iowa made many of these flags, and with 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

tears and blessings gave them to husbands, brothers, 
sons, and lovers to carry into the war for the preserva- 
tion of the country. 

It is the proud satisfaction of a whole people to know 
that these flags were never dishonored —that they were 
bravely, nobly borne through four years of terrible con- 
flict, and at last returned to the state stained with the 
patriotic blood of heroes. 

These flags belong to the women of the state not less 
than to the men. Their unrecorded sacrifices were not 
of blood, but of human hearts. Let them, too, share in 
the glory that these illustrious flags cast upon the 
state. 




♦♦♦(Broup Zvoo,.. 

No. I — Third Cavalry. 

No. 2. — pourth Cavalry. 
No. 3 — Second Battery. 

No. 4 — Thirteeotb Infantry. 
No. 5 — Tentb Infantry. 

No. 6— Eleventf) lofantry. 
No. 7 — Eigh)tb Infantry. 
No. 8— Twelfth lofantry. 
No. 9— NiQth Infaotry. 

No. 10 — Fourteenth infantry. 



(5overnor'8 Iproclamatlon* 



©ffictal program. 



BODress of Ibon. TIDlarren S. Dungan, lieutcnantsCovernor, on WcXiv-. 
ering tbe iflags to tbc Color=:Kearer0 at tbe Brsenal. 



Buoust 10, 1894. 



state of llowa. 
Bjccutivc department 



A PROCLAMATION. 




"^^HE Twenty-fourth General Assembly of 
[ I the state of Iowa enacted a law provid- 

^ ing for the better preservation of the 
colors, standards and battle flags borne by 
Iowa regiments and batteries during the 
war of the rebellion. In compliance with 
the provisions of said law, hermetically 
sealed glass cases have been provided and placed in 
appropriate positions in the corridor of the capitol, in 
which the battle flags will be preserved. The 10th da}^ 
of August, 1894, has been selected as an appropriate day 
for the transfer of the battle flags from the state arsenal 
to the capitol building. This great occasion, one of the 
last official acts of our state in patriotic remembrance of 
that heroic army which she sent forth to defend the flag- 
while yet in the very infancy of her statehood, is one in 
which every true citizen of Iowa will be deeply inter- 
ested. The hardships and sacrifices, the alternating- 
victories and defeats, and the final triumph and after 
glory of that army are matters of history; but the battle- 
flags around which our Iowa soldiers rallied, and under 
the folds of which the}^ marched through smoke of battle 
to victory or death, are left to us, a precious heritage 
toward which the hearts of all lowans go forth in 
grateful remembrance. 



30 



BATTLE FLAG DAY. 



Now, therefore, I, Frank D. Jackson, governor of the 
state of Iowa, do hereby recommend that the 10th day of 
August, 1894, be known and referred to as Battle Flag 
Day, and that it be observed as a public holiday conse- 
crated to the memory of the patriotism and valor of 
Iowa's soldiers, living and dead. 

Let the subject of patriotism, as represented in the one 
hundred and thirty-three flags that led the seventy thou- 
sand Iowa soldiers into battle, be the inspiring sentiment 
of the day, and I hereby request that all the people of 
this commonwealth refrain upon that day from unneces- 
sary labor and join in appropriate exercises in com- 
memoration of this patriotic occasion. 

Let as many as possible of the surviving members of 
Iowa regiments take a personal part in the exercises of 
this day. Let regimental reunions be called to meet at 
the capital city on the day previous, so that as far as 
possible these battle flags may be carried by their own 
respective color bearers, surrounded by the broken 
fragments of regimental organization. 

With a spirit of reverent solemnity, let the people of 
Iowa devote this day to the consideration of the relations 
of the citizen to the flag; of liberty as distinct from 
license; of loyalt}^, patriotism and heroism. Let us 
again renew our devotion to the flag — our fidelity to 
the law. 

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my 

hand and caused to be affixed the great 

seal of the state of Iowa. 

Done at Des Moines this twenty-eighth 

day of June, in the jeav of our Lord, one 

thousand eight hundred and ninetj-four. 




Ly^C:^ /<^ 




(^ (i^(^<U^^^ 



By the Governor: 



fmi& 




^Secretary of State. 



OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BATTLE FLAG DAY. 




^ I ^ HE governor of Iowa having, by his 23roclama- 
tion, designated August 10, 1S94, as battle flag 
day, and the day on which the flags and ban- 
ners carried by Iowa regiments and batteries 
during the war of the rebellion, would be 
transferred from the arsenal to the cases pro- 
vided for their reception in the capitol build- 
ing, the following announcement of the order 
of exercises for the day is made by the committee on arrange- 
ments for the information of all interested. 

The line will be formed for the i:)arade promptly at 1 o'clock 
P. M. , in the following order: 

Platoon of Police, 

Des Moines Union Band. 

Governor and Staff. 

first division. 

Major John C. Loper, Commanding. 

Company "H," Third Regiment, I. N. G. 

Company "A," Third Regiment, I. N. G. 

Boys' Brigade. 

Sons of Veterans. 



SECOND DIVISION. 

Geo. a. Newman, Department Commander, Commanding 

Department of Iowa, G. A R., 

Including all ex-Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, other 

than Iowa Soldiers, w^hether Members of the 

Grand Army of the Republic or not. 

Major Carper's Drum Corps. 



32 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

third division. 

Colonel William T. Shaw, Commanding. 

General H. H. Wright, Aid. 

Captain C. H. Smith, Aid. 

Iowa Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, with Battle Flags. 

The column being formed will proceed to the arsenal, where 
the battle flags and banners will be delivered to the color- 
bearers of the respective regiments and batteries by Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Warren S. Dungan, late Lieutenant- Colonel of 
the Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and thence to the 
capitol building, where the following exercises will be held: 

1. Call to Oi'der, - Gen. J. W. Noble, Presiding Officer. 

2. Music, ... Des Moines Union Band. 

3. Invocation, ... Rev. A. V. Kendrick. 

4. Original Poem, - - Major S. H. M. Byers. 

5. Address, - " Returning Flags to the State." 

Major John F. Lacey. 

6. Response, - - Governor Frank D. Jackson. 

7. Martial Music, - - Car^Der's Drum Corps. 

8. Song, . - - "Star Spangled Banner*" 

Mrs. Jesse Cheek. 

The railroads of Iowa have granted the usual rate of one 
fare for the round trip from all points in the state to Des 
Moines, tickets to be on sale August 8th, 9th and 10th, up to 
the time of the exercises, and good returning August 11th. 

It is most desirable that all Iowa soldiers who can possibly 
do so, arrive in Des Moines as early as practicable Thursday, 
August 9th, for the purpose of perfecting regimental organiza- 
tions, preparatory to the formation of the parade on the fol- 
lowing day, by the selection of regimental commanders and 
color-bearers. 

Upon arriving in Des Moines all Iowa soldiers should report 
as soon as possible at the adjutant-general's office in the capitol 
building, where rooms will be provided for the purpose of 
holding regimental meetings. 

Crocker and Kinsman Posts. G. A. R., of Des Moines, hav- 
ing generously taken an active interest in the matter, the com- 
mittee can assure all comrades who come that they will be able 
to obtain good accommodations at reasonable prices. 

Comrades, come! It is the last ojiportunity we shall have to 
march under the folds of these sacred, battle-scarred emblems 
of the patriotism and valor of Iowa soldiers, living and dead. 



ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUNGAN. 33 

Come join us once more in doing honor, in peace, to the dear 
old flags that were never dishonored in war. 

Jno. R. Prime, 
Charles Aldrich, 
Phil. Schaller, 
C. H. Smith, 
J. P. Patrick, 

Committee. 



LIEUT.-GOV. DUNGAN'S SPEECH 

On Delivering the Flags to Old Color-Bearers at the Arsenal. 




/^OMRADES, survivors of that splendid army of 
V^ over 75,000 men, furnished by the state of Iowa 
during the great rebellion: This day is to the 
whole i^eople of the state, and especially to you, 
a day of absorbing interest — a day to become 
historic in the annals of our beloved state. You 
have been called together by the proclamation 
of the governor of the state, for the purj^ose of removing these 
old battle flags, borne by you and your comrades on so many 
sanguinary battle fields, during that momentous struggle, from 
their present resting place in this arsenal to the place prepared 
for them in the corridors of the new capitol of the state, for 
their better preservation. 

The sight of these dear old flags stirs your souls to their very 
depths. They awaken afresh in your memories the tlirilling 
scenes of a third of a century ago. The whole panorama of 
that great war passes in review before you. You hear anew 
the startling sound of an enemy's artillery firing upon a United 
States fort. You feel again the depths of that emotion which 
stirred the hearts of all loyal citizens to realize the danger 
which threatened the union, and awakened in your hearts the 
patriotic resolve to swear anew allegiance to the old flag and to 
offer your services, and your lives, if need be, to preserve the 
union bequeathed to us by the fathers of the rei3ublic. 



34 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

You recall the hour of the greatest trial experienced in your 
soldier life — the hour of parting from your wife and child; or 
from father and mother, sisters and brothers, or your sweet- 
heart. 

You remember the shout which greeted the first flag received 
by your regiment as it was unfurled to the breeze in your sight. 
It was perhaps the gift of the patriotic women of your own 
neighborhood. The Thirty-fourth Iowa regiment, to which I 
belonged, went into camp at Burlington. The patriotic women 
of that city presented us with our first regimental flag. 

In doing so they charged us to bear it bravely in the face of 
the foe, and never allow it to be trailed in the dust or to be dis- 
honored. We pledged them life, fortune and honor to obey 
their injunction This was an inspiration which the regiment 
could never forget. How w^ell our pledges were redeemed his- 
tory must record. An evidence of our fidelity, however, is seen 
in this battle-scarred flag — the one they presented to us, and 
one of the three flags the Thirty-fourth furnished to the collec- 
tion before us. If I remember aright, the patriotic women of 
Burlington presented the First Iowa cavalry and perhaps other 
regiments with their first regimental flag. 

Comrades, you recall the battles in which you were engaged 
and in which the stars and stripes were your inspiration to 
noble deeds. You bore them until they were torn and tattered, 
often bullet-riven and blood-stained, until no longer fit for 
service, and then, with careful hands, you folded them up and 
sent them to the adjutant-general of the state for safe keeping, 
where you find them to-day. 

In recalling the heroic deeds witnessed by you in your army 
life, nothing swells your breasts with greater pride than to 
remember the devotion of the color-guard to the flags and 
standards in their keeping. Their heroism was witnessed on 
many a battle field. One color-bearer is shot down and another 
springs to his place, raises the fallen flag and moves forward 
only to fall as the first, until sometimes three or four have 
fallen in a single battle. Witness the Second Iowa at Fort- 
Donelson; the fourth color-bearer falls, but is able to rise and 
bear the flag to the end of the fight and to victory. And that 
color-bearer is with us to-day in the person of Comrade 
Twombly, late treasurer of state. Many instances of a similar 
character might be enumerated, but time will not permit. 



ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUNCAN. 35 

Comrades, your hearts may well beat with honest pride 
to-day when you remember how gallantly you bore these flags 
at Wilson's Creek, Vicksburg, Donelson, Lookout Mountain, 
Mission Ridge, At' antic, Mobile, Blakely, Gettysburg, the 
Wilderness, Fredericksburg, and on to victory at Appomatox. 
You kept your pledges to the noble women who joresented you 
so many of these flags. Our flags have never been lowered or 
disgraced by an Iowa regiment; a few of our flags were cap- 
tured by the enemy, but the troops that bore them were facing 
the foe defending them with undaunted courage. Here are the 
great body of the flags we carried to battle and to victory, our 
witnesses to the people this day. 

Look upon them! Not only battle-scarred, but purple- 
stained with the blood of your fallen comrades They were 
placed here for safe keeping, but soon they began to fade and 
waste away. Seeing this, the patriotic care of an Iowa woman 
partly with her own hands, encased them in tarlton for their 
preservation — the wife of the then governor —Mrs. JohnH. Gear. 
This was a partial protection, but it was evident that they 
could not long be kept intact unless otherwise cared for. Iowa 
is proud of the record made by her citizen soldiery. She has 
shown this by many liberal laws on her statute books. Proud 
of her military record and of the fidelity, valor and patriotism 
of her sons and regarding these flags as the best evidence of 
that record, of that valor and patriotism, and viewing their 
possession as a sacred trust, she has prepared receptacles in 
the rotunda of our new capitol for their deposit, consisting of 
hermetically sealed glass cases, where, it is hoped, they may 
be preserved in their present condition for long years if not 
for ages to come. There they will be in a position where the 
whole people of the state may look upon them as often as they 
pass through the capitol, patriotic object lessons, not only to 
the present generation, but to our children and to our 
children's children down the ages. 

Color bearers, yours is the post of honor to-day; you take 
these old flags in your hands for the last time; you carry them 
to the capitol and deliver them into the hands of the governor 
of the state who, on behalf of the state, receives them at your 
hands and sees to their proper deposit. 

Comrades with us in the great struggle for the union who 
served in regiments from other states, we are glad to welcome 
you with us on this occasion. To you is equal honor due for 



36 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

the triumph of our cause. Being now citizens of Iowa, we 
know that you share with us the just pride we feel in preserv- 
ing, as long as possible, our revered old battle flags. 

Citizens of Iowa, your presence with us signifies your deep 
interest in all that pertains to the honor and welfare of our 
beloved state. Your loyalty to both the state and nation has 
ever been conspicuous. Your devotion to the flag has never 
faltered, and your regard for the union soldier has been con- 
stant. We are j^roud of the fact that the whole people of the 
state unite with us in our care for these battle flags, and share 
with us the honors and the responsibilities of their safe pre- 
servation. 

One very sad thought forces itself upon us as we gaze at 
these battle-scarred and blood-stained banners — the thought 
that so many of the gallant men who carried them to battle and 
to victory were not permitted to return with them. All honor 
to the noble dead who "died that the nation might live." And 
are they dead to us? An Iowa poet has said: 

"There is no death! The stars go down 
To rise upon some fairer shore, 
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown 
To shine forever more. 

There is no death 1 The dust we tread 

Shall change beneath the summer showei'S 

To golden rain or mellow fruit, 
Or rainbow-tinted flowers. 

^ There is no death I An angel form 

Walks o'er the earth with silent tread — 
He bears our best loved things away, 
And then we call them dead."' 

They shall live in our hearts and memories and in history, 
so long as patriotism continues to be the crowning virtue of 
good citizenship. 




♦..(Broup ^bree,>. 

No. I— Fifth Cavalry. 

No. 2 — Seventh Cavalry. 
No. 3— Third Battery. 

No. 4 — pifteeotb Infantry. 
No. 5 — Sixteenth) Infantry. 

No. 6 — Seventeenth) Infantry. 
No. 7 — Eigl)teentb Infantry. 
No. 8 — Nineteenth iQfantry. 
No. 9 — Twentieth Infaotry. 

No. 10 — Twenty-first Infantry- 



Eyercises anb Hbbresses 

Bt tbc Capitol. 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 



S^' 




ENERAL JOHN W. NOBLE, formerly col- 
onel of the Third Veteran Volunteer Cav- 
^^^ 1 airy regiment of Iowa, was introduced by 
Adjutant-General Prime, to be presiding 
officer of ceremonies at Des Moines, Iowa, 
battle flag day, August 10, 1894, and spoke 
as follows: 

Comrades and Fellow Citizens: In calling this meeting to 
order, I wish first to acknowledge the great honor conferred 
upon me by your selection of myself as presiding officer. I 
must refer it rather to your partiality than to any claims of 
mine to distinction among so many eminent and war-worn vet- 
erans. It would have been honor enough for me to have met 
with you on this great battle flag day, to have recalled the days 
of our united service for our country, and know that I too was 
an Iowa soldier. I thank you and ask your kind assistance in 
discharging the duties of the hour. 

By authority of the state, given by act and resolution of the 
legislature, and in pursuance of the proclamation of the gov- 
ernor, we have assembled to place the battle flags borne by the 
soldiers of Iowa in the war for the union, here in the capitol 
and the custody of the people forever. 

It is a solemn, it may be said, sacred occasion, for around 
these flags what memories cling, and by their presence what 
thoughts and emotions are called forth. Military achievement 
and glory may swell the heart with the consciousness of vic- 
tory, but the lapse of time cannot eftace the sadness we must 
ever feel for the loss and sacrifice of those who held those ban- 
ners aloft in the battle. 



44 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

Said a sergeant, Lowe, of the Thirtieth regiment, when shot 
through the body at Kenesaw : ' ' Tell my father and brothers 
that whenever they see the stars and stripes to remember that 
I died for the brave old flag." 

In many different regiments assaulting the foe on varied 
fields of the war. man after man, when one was shot another 
springing forward, bore these flags onward, with the all but 
absolute knowledge that death would be the result. We know 
the glorious lives of these standards; what lives they cost; what 
lives and what liberty with the power of our union they saved. 

But it is not for me to-day to cite the record or speak at 
length of their history. Others will recount them appropri- 
ately. All that may be said will be, however, but the renewal 
of memories to you, for they are your flags, and their history 
is your history. You, yes, let me say my comrades, we are the 
remnants of those who went forth with these banners, and our 
hearts will be cold and our tongues forever silent ere we shall 
cease to feel and celebrate the services, the suffering, the glory 
and the success of the Iowa soldiers, and claim for them and 
their equally deserving comrades of the other states who stood 
shoulder to shoulder with them, the gratitude and recognition 
of our united people. 

A third of a century ago the regiments of Iowa went forth 
to battle for the constitution and the union. The enterprise 
and intelligence of the eastern, and middle, and other states 
had peopled Iowa's cities and prairies. Than her soldiers, 
none were more loyal and daring. Her volunteers represented 
fully the worth of Iowa's property, education and patriotism. 
Her arms were supported by a well matured and vigorous man- 
hood, and her courage by a nervous force and mental training 
unsurpassed among all the hosts that marched to the front. 
They were encouraged and supported, too, by as God-fearing 
and land-loving a people at home, a peoj^le as elevated in sen- 
timent and pure in life, as this world has known; free as the 
northwest wind that fanned them, and strong as the currents 
of the great rivers that bounded their territory and nourished 
their land, forcing their ways through a continent to the sea,. 
There was no reason these volunteers should fail in duty, and 
there was every incentive to the marked and eminent success 
they attained; alas! the achievement of death and suffering in 
all forms known to war, but, proudly we say it, the attain- 
ment of victory and the maintenance of the supremacy and 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 45 

continuance of these United States. That service was grandly- 
performed. 

The First regiment of Iowa Volunteers, on August 10th, 
thirty-three years ago this day, sustained the brunt of the battle 
at Wilson's Creek, and thirteen other regiments, after braving 
and achieving all that to have served with Grant and Sherman 
implies, went on the march to the sea, and were at the close of 
the war in the grand review at Washington, Sheridan knew 
other of our regiments as among his most reliable in the great 
campaign of the Shenandoah valley, as he had long before 
gained his first distinction in connection with an Iowa cavalry 
regiment in Tennessee. Who that speaks of Donelson, Pitts- 
burg Landing, luka or Corinth, Raymond, Champion Hill, Black 
River or Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, 
Resaca, Allatoona, Kenesaw and Atlanta, Savannah or Colum- 
bia, Winchester, Cedar Creek or Fisher's Hill, Red River or 
Mobile, Montevallo, Ebenezer Church, Selma and Columbus, 
Franklin, Nashville, Blue Mills, Wilson's Creek, Kirksville, 
Springfield, Pea Ridge or Prairie Grove, Osage and Independ- 
ence, or any of the fields of the west and south; who that marks 
the rise to greatness and renown of the most distinguished of 
our generals; who that knows how the shackles, placed upon 
the commerce of the Mississippi, were burst asunder, and its 
avenues once more opened from river shore to ocean coast; who 
that reckons up the courage and endurance and all-pervading 
love of country that met at every point the advancing and 
boasting hosts of secession and disloyalty; who that estimates 
the most important factors that maintained the constitution and 
sustained the flag, but must and gladly does recognize the con- 
tinued and most eflicient services, from the first to the last of 
the war for the union, of gallant, devoted and heroic sons of 
Iowa':' 

We are now to place in shrines of safety the battle flags of 
these troops. How bright they were when they went forth; 
with what loving and patient hearts the mothers and daughters, 
sweethearts and wives gave them to the keeping of men then 
young and full of hope, but all alike volunteering life and for: 
tune for God and humanity. How soon the bloody record of 
that sacrifice began; how constantly it increased. The roll of 
battle and death came sullenly on through the long four years. 
But our flags were still there. And though every shell or 
bomb that rent the regiment on the field went on until it 



46 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

desolated a hearthstone away back in this fair state, the ranks 
were firmly closed again, and the sobs of affection were smoth- 
ered in prayers for the flag. How the havoc increased; how 
dreadfvil was the number of the dead; how, even now, the soul 
shrinks at the recital of their names. But it was for the land 
we love; it was to do or die for our country. The re-enlist- 
ments came; experience had shown the reality and sternness of 
the duty originally assumed in the first outburst of enthusiasm, 
but the cause had not yet been won. It was a war of principle. 
The flags were still there, the symbols of that principle, and 
they were to remain there until wreathed with victory. The 
support from home was redoubled; the gray beards went to 
guard duty at points distant from home, and from the state. 
The sanitary commission and hospital nurses strove to render 
the camp more endurable, and soothe and support the sick and 
wounded. The colored troops were organized and officered by 
Iowa soldiers. But the thought to give over the strife came 
never to any in Iowa. 

There was to be but one result — the supremacy of the national 
government. The union as it was and shall ever be. 

Victory came at last in every state and on every field. The 
regiments returned. Their dead, how many! and sleeping how 
far away! But ever to be remembered as those who had given 
the highest proof of constancy. The wounded and the wasted 
returned, and were enfolded to the heart of a grateful state and 
nation, and never will it be possible to reward them too highly. 
One of the brightest pages of American history will be that of 
the gratitude of our people for its veterans 

And the flags were borne home again and inscribed with 
names of successful battles for the republic that have passed 
into history as the most skillful military achievements for the 
worthiest cause the world has ever known. 

And here are the flags! 

Over them is the capitol of Iowa, and over all the constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

The w^ork of the fathers has been preserved. The genera- 
tion that supported it is passing away as the generation that 
created it has long since departed. 

Men may die, but principles never. The love of representa- 
tive republican government, of constitutional freedom, is as 
strong to-day among our people as it ever was. The govern- 
ment that pui down the great rebellion against the constitution 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 47 

is as strong as ever, and its people love it as they ever have. 
It will not be surrendered to insurrection; to unauthorized 
assumption of authority, or to the supercilious presumption 
of individuals. 

The great guarantees of life, liberty and prosperity, wrought 
out by so much sacrifice, will be preserved and enforced under 
the constitution as it is, and the instrumentalities it controls. 
It is capable and its energy will meet and surpass every peril. 

"Feai' not each sudden sound and shock. 
It is of the wave and not the rock "' 

It will prevail — "the least as feeling its care, and the great- 
est as not exempt from its power." 

These fiags will tell to the rising generations of Iowa, what 
their fathers and mothers did and suffered. Other like symbols 
will be borne into many a civil, and it may be, military contest 
by our immediate successors and their posterity. Rent and 
stained they too will be placed away in honor as we to-day 
enshrine those here, but there will be ever floating from the 
summit of the capitol that one supreme symbol of our national 
glory which, though fresh and new, and dancing on the soft 
winds of summer, will be prouder because it has met adversity; 
brighter because it has been blackened by battle and blood; 
and there ever cheerfully waving in those future years and 
ages, because it is " the flag of the free hearts' only home " and 
the emblem of constitutional American liberty. 

Comrades, I call this meeting to order. 

Attention I Battalions I 



Following- General Noble's address the Des Moines 
Union band rendered some appropriate music, after which 
Rev. A. V. Kendrick delivered an eloquent and impres- 
sive invocation, following which Major S. H. M. Byers 
read the following original poem: 



48 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 



THE BATTLE FLAGS OF IOWA. 



BY S. H. M. BYERS. 

Tread softly here. 'Tis valor's home: 

Sons of a noble west; 
Beneath the splendors of this dome 

'Tis tit your banners rest. 
Ohl remnant of a mighty host 

That marshalled for the fray, 
Nor feared war's dreadful holocaust, 

Be welcome here to-day. 

Bear once again the flags ye bore 

'Midst howling shot and shell, 
And squadrons' charge and cannons' roar, 

And shrieks and shouts of hell; 
And touch yon silken flags again. 

And kiss yon shining stars. 
And hold them to your breast as when 

You held them in the wars. 

Rewaken memories of the past 

That long have slumbered still. 
And hear once more the bugle's blast. 

And feel the battle's thi'ill. 
And hear again the shout, "they fly,'' 

The cry the victors gave — 
Ohl never yet was such a cry 

Heard this side of the grave. 

And if some comrade's heart blood stain 

The tattered stripes and stars, 
And naught of the old flag remain 

But faded battle scars — 
Think not 'twas vain that comrade stood, 

His sacrifice too high — 
For every drop of freedom's blood 

Is written in the sky. 

The angels meet with smiling eyes 

The comrades that ye gave. 
And welcome into Paradise 

The spirits of the brave ; 
And whether in the battle's smoke, 

Or in some prison drear, 
God's angels heard the hearts that broke, 

And answered with a tear. 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 

Oh I stars and stripes of Donelson, 

And Shiloh's bloody flags, 
Think ye there's naught of all ye won 

Save these poor faded rags? 
Th Jik ye no memories of the past 

Can stir our hearts to-dayV 
Nor cry "to arms,'' nor bugle's blast, 

Nor battle's fierce array? 

Oh: banners that Atlanta knew— 

And Vicksburg's frowning heights. 
With bloody hands they welcomed you 

In half a hundred fights. 
Think ye the hands that bore you then 

On Chattanooga's brow. 
On Corinth's field, and Belmont's plain. 

Can be forgotten now? 
Cursed, doubly cursed, who would forget 

That these torn banners here 
With his own father's blood were wet, 

With his own mother's tear: 
That when on Lookout's heights was borne 

Amidst the battle's shout 
Yon stars and stripes, now old and torn, 

His brother's life went out. 
Oh! flags that never knew defeat, 

Nor led a conquest war. 
That waved o'er many a fort and fleet, 

And never lost a star: 
Come there not sometimes in the night, 

When all the world is still, 
The heroes of luka's fights, 

The men of Champion's Hiir:* 

Assemble round you once again, 

In uniforms of blue, 
A thousand spirits of the slain 

That gave their lives for youV 
From out their graves at Winchester 

See ye their columns wheelV 
From Pea Ridge, and from Wilson's Creek, 

The storraers of MobileV 
Come they not smiliagonce again. 

About your table-round, 
To sit there in the moonlight, when 

There is no battle soundV 
All tell of daugers half forgot. 

Of battles long since by. 
And how for liberty tis 'not 
So hard a thing to dieV 



49 



50 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

Oh I land with patriots such as these 

Securely can'st thou rest — 
And fear no foes, on land or seas, 

No traitors, east or west. 
Oh I Thou that kept these heroes brave 

When the dark conflict came. 
Make us but worthy what they gave, 

And worthy of their fame. 




♦.♦(Broup fom,.. 

No, I— Twenty-second Infantry. 
No. 2 — TweQty-third Infantry. 
No. 3 — Twenty-fourth Infantry. 
No. 4 — TweQty -fifth) Infantry. 
No. 5 — TweQty-sixtl) Infantry. 

No. 6 — Twenty-seventf) lofantry. 
No. 7 — Twcr)ty-eigh)tb Infantry. 
No. 8 — Twenty-ninth lofantry- 
No. 9 — Thirtieth lnfar)try. 
No. 10— Eighth Cavalry. 



HON. JOHN F. LACEY'S ADDRESS 

Returning the Flags to the Permanent Custody of the State. 




^7K LTHOUGH nearly a third of a century has 
passed since the civil war, its battle flags are 
still the objects of popular love and devotion. 
And so we find a common patriotic impulse 
spontaneously moving towards their preserva- 
tion. The legislature of Iowa has enacted 
this sentiment into law. Animated by the 
same spirit, private citizens and survivors of regiments having 
such flags in their custody have cheerfully added them to those 
heretofore held by the adjutant-general of the state. 

The citizens of Iowa are now assembled to formally transfer 
to the keeping of the commonwealth as among its most sacred 
possessions the flags that Iowa courage and Iowa j^atriotism 
followed in defense of the union. To the safe keeping of our 
great commonwealth we entrust these banners. Their cost is 
priceless, and their history glorious beyond expression. As a 
soldier in the past and as a citizen and civilian in the present, 
to me has been accorded the honor of speaking for these mute 
trophies. Upon a soil dedicated to liberty forever, we meet to 
recall the memories with which these emblems shall be asso- 
ciated in history. Memories arise, tender, sad, fierce, exult- 
ing; but leading up in the end to forgiveness, reconciliation, 
unity and peace. These dumb memorials of the past are more 
eloquent than any spoken words. In their holy presence par- 
tisanship is silent and only sentiments of patriotism, wide as 
the nation itself, may rise to the lips. The nation is no longer 
welded by bands of iron and shafts of steel. The silken threads 
of these flags soothe and bind us together heart and soul as they 
rustle gently as the wings of doves in the free wind of heaven. 



56 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

The motto of Iowa, inscribed by one of Iowa's honest sons npon 
the great monument of Washington, never spoke the senti- 
ments of her people more fully than they do to-day: "Iowa: 
Her affections, like the rivers of her borders, flow to an insep- 
arable union." 

As we meet here to-day, to Almighty God our hearts should 
be lifted in quiet but earnest gratitude. Let us have no malice 
and indulge in no mere exultation over the victories which 
render this celebration possible. To the erring states that 
sought to rend that flag, to the brethren who sought to substi- 
tute two rival and hostile nations for the friendly union of the 
states, we give the old flag as their emblem as well as ours. 
Many a star has been shot from the colors before us, but the 
states which those stars represent never in fact have lost their 
true and rightful places in the union. It still remains an indis- 
soluble union of indestructible states. With high and patriotic 
spirit let us trace the history of our star-spangled banner. 
Flags are chosen to speak for those who carry them. We 
shoot at a hostile standard and salute a friendly one. The stars 
and stripes were chosen as the national ensign, September 3, 
1777, and in eight days afterwards floated over the victorious 
field of Brandywine and soon after graced the surrender of 
Burgoyne. They cheered Washington at Valley Forge and 
waved proudly over Yorktown when independence triumphed 
at the last. This flag of thirteen stripes and a union with blue 
with as many white stars as there are states in the union, took 
its present precise form April 4. 1818. But new as it is, it is 
already ancient among the banners of the world. It is older 
than the present flags of France, Spain, England and Germany. 
But if we measure its age by the deeds that it glorifles, it would 
run back into an antiquity remote indeed. It was carried to 
the utmost southern point by American enterprise when the 
Antarctic continent at the south pole was discovered. It has 
been planted at the highest latitude on the edge of the open 
sea that looks forever in solemn silence at the motionless polar 
star. It has been borne by a Stanley to the sources of the 
Congo and the Nile, where it greeted the enduring, daring and 
patient Livingston in the chosen scenes of his self-sacrificing 
attempt to Christianize the very depths of degradation and 
human slavery. Over the sea, in every port, it has gladdened 
the sky. It has been planted alike on earth's wildest and most 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 57 

inaccessible peak, and upon the sea's remotest and most solitary 
shore. 

A stranger may look upon these emblems and say: "'What 
are they anyhow? Nothing but Hags nothing but a few pieces 
of silk — some red and wdiite strij^es — some white stars in a blue 
field — and that is all." 

"A primrose by the river's brim 
A yellow primrose is to him: 
And it is nothing morel" 

We do not analyze a tear, but think rather of the emotions 
of joy or grief that bid it flow. The stripes, the stars, the silk 
or the bunting, are the material things a flag is made of but 
the love, the hopes, the memories of the people, which are 
symbolized by their national banner, are the true flag after all. 
They constitute its soul A woven or embroidered eagle, a 
cross, a crown, a dragon, a lion; or some imaginary beast or 
bird taken from the field of heraldry became the badges of the 
nations of the olden time. But the new and bright republic in 
its day of early hope and faith, appealed to heaven, and looking 
up into the sky choose the stars themselves as the emblem of 
the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

In the capitals of Europe the stranger looks upon the crown 
jewels as typical of the pride and glory of ancient monarchies. 
But here the pilgrim finds no material thing so prized as the 
country's flag, and none so dear as the battle flag of the 
republic. The splendid capitol of two millions of people will 
hold no treasure more worthy of its keeping than the banners 
we deposit here to-day. 

At one time they gleamed in the sunlight fresh and beauti- 
ful, their colors as bright as the flowers of the prairies, and he 
who looked upon their array could realize how ' ' terrible was 
an army with banners." But to-day they are dearer than when 
bright and gorgeous they were intrusted to the keeping of the 
young soldiers of our state. They have been carried without 
dishonor, they are returned without disgrace; on their silken 
folds are inscribed the names of many battles in which they 
have been borne in defense of national existence, and the 
record is one in which all who participated may take an honest 
l^ride Those names are crumbling with decay, but the results 
of these battles are projected into the history of the w^orld, and 
countless ages will yet feel their influence. The victory was 
not the triumph of Iowa, nor of the North, but of the whole 



58 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

union, and in the future of our united country the stars of the 
south will shine with the same lustre as those of the north. 

From the center to the sea the true American looks only for 
what is best for all of our common and reunited family. 

The riotous anarchist may raise his voice and defy the power 
of the government for a day, but the mighty nation, serene in 
its strength, confident in its honor, erect in its justice, calls for 
peace and obedience and its order is obeyed. 

To the youth here let me say: Do you know what these flags 
mean? They mean a nation saved, its unity upheld, its honor 
preserved, its power unbroken, and all men in its borders for- 
ever free. Do you know, my young friend, how many men have 
died defending these colors y Around these banners as centers 
have raged the tempests of fire in the greatest battles. From 
1861 to 1H65 Iowa was not the mighty commonwealth of 2,000,- 
000 souls that she is to-day. Her railways and her cities were 
only in embryo. But from her sparsely settled prairies 76,242 
men enlisted in the army of the union. Nine regiments of cav- 
alry and four batteries of artillery bore these guidons. Forty- 
eight regiments of white and one of black infantry carried the 
name and fame of Iowa in the great camjDaigns and battles 
of the rebellion. Before the war ended 12 368 men, the young- 
est, the strongest and bravest, lay in their graves, and 8,8-18 
were shot in the defense of these very flags which you honor 
to-day. Disease has made fierce havoc in those ranks in the 
days of peace, and now age is striking its certain blows upon 
the grey-headed column that still remains. Thousands of miles 
of weary, dusty and dangerous march are here recorded. 
Through the pestilence of the swamp by the deadly ambush, 
in every compaign the standard of the Iowa soldier was borne 
where duty called. In the clouds of Lookout Mountain and 
the fogs of Yazoo, by the Shenandoah and the Mississippi; 
under Sheridan or Grant: under Hooker or Dodge; under Rice 
or Crocker; under Sherman or Canby; under Wilson or Noble; 
under A. J. Smith or Steele; under the gallant leaders that I 
cannot take the time to name, wherever danger lurked and men 
of courage were needed, Iowa men were given the post of 
honor. Some Iowa flags were captured, but their loss was never 
coupled with dishonor. Their capture cost the captors dear. 
So glorious was our defense that our enemies, now our brethren, 
have sent them back to be carried in this memorial of j^eace. 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 59 

And here they are to-day on this anniversary of the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, and a day that brings a flush of honest pride 
to the cheek of every citizen of the Hawkeye state, and recalls 
a gallant regiment voluntarily remaining beyond its term of 
enlistment to stand by Lyon on that bloody field to teach the 
world what Iowa troojis were made of. We look with full heart 
and swimming eyes upon these colors in their last march. 

Rains have drenched them: 
Powder smoke has stained them: 
Storms have tried and torn them: 
. The tooth of time has eaten them: 

Age has faded them. 

But the glory of the deeds they commemorate will never 
fade from earth. They are but fragments of silk, fraj^ed, soiled 
and torn in a hundred battles and marches, but they represent 
those scenes by flood and field where the struggle for j^eace and 
union were fought, and fought to the end. The very stars in 
their courses fought for union and liberty. When soldiers defy 
death they drive him into the ranks of the enemy, and men defy 
death when they fight under the banner of their choice for the 
land they love. To the dead who fell by land and sea we give 
honor to-day. This festival of the flags is one of special honor 
to the dead, and to none more so than those gallant men whose 
last resting place is unknown. In a single tomb at Arlington 
are deposited the remains of over 2,000 of these unknown 
heroes. 

When Iowa's beautiful monument, in honor of her soldiers, 
arises near this capitol, let there be inscribed a tablet to her 
unknown dead. With the soldiers of foreign birth who laid 
down or hazarded their lives for the land of their adoption, 
and with the black man who dared death for the government 
which had done him nothing but wrong, we share to-day the 
honors of victory and the benefits of a free and united country. 

A nation's emblem should be appropriate. Ours is the stars 
of heaven. The confederacy chose the southern cross to adorn 
its battle flag, a constellation invisible even from the most 
southern limits of the United States. Australia, with inverted 
seasons and alien sky, might well adopt this group of stars as 
its standard, but it was not a fitting symbol for any part of the 
American union. To the men who fought against us then we 
now extend the hand of fellow.ship. For their gallant dead we 
sorrow as well as for our own. 



60 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

" Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the judgment day, 
Under the laurel the blue, 
Under the willow the gray." 

Theirs was a misplaced sentiment which put the state against 
the nation. Our soldiers loved Iowa no less, but they loved the 
nation more, and we rejoice that we are brothers once again. 
Out of all this turmoil and strife good has come in the provi- 
dence of God. From the body of the lion honey was taken, 
and from the tunnel at Andersonville dug by our soldiers in an 
unavailing attempt at freedom, flows now a perpetual spring 
amid the graves of a national cemetery. And in the recent 
domestic troubles through which we have just passed, the quiet 
loyalty of the states so lately arrayed against the government 
has been a gratifying and pleasing spectacle. 

But while we forgive and accept the erring states back again 
into the power as well as the benefits of peace and unity, we 
will never fail to teach that the cause of the union and liberty 
was then and will be forever right. Let us forgive but 
remember. 

To the prisoner of war nothing was so dear as the flag of his 
country, and on returning from the hostile lines its sight has 
cheered many a soldier's heart, and made him forget his hunger 
and his rags. Let me recall an incident. On the fourth day 
of July, 1863, when Pemberton w^as marching out with the dis- 
armed defenders of Vicksburg, w^hen Meade w^as following up 
his victory at Gettysburg and the hills of Helena were echoing 
with the repulse of Price and Holmes, the prisoners at Libby 
wanted to celebrate the day of independence. Surrounded by 
guards on all sides, to celebrate the Fourth of July had its 
difficulties, and among them was the fact that no flag floated in 
Richmond but the hated confederate standard. To celebrate 
independence day without the stars and stripes seemed like a 
hollow mockery. The old flag must be had at all hazards, and 
three soldiers, one wearing a red shirt, another a white, and a 
third a blue one, stripped themselves in the cause of patriotism 
and the day was celebrated with no feature omitted. The cap- 
tive ensign fluttering within the prison walls spoke of home, of 
country and liberty. The materials were humble, but the flag 
was worthy of taking its place among the sacred memorials we 
are about to deposit here to-day. 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 61 

By the presence of these colors I am reminded of the tender 
memory of Nathaniel B. Baker, adjutant-i?eneral of Iowa, and 
of the story he used to tell. To him is mainly due the g'ather- 
ing and preservation of these sacred relics. One day, in the 
earl 3^ years after the war, as he w^as sitting in his office, which 
was decorated by these battle flags, a lady dressed in deep 
mourning came in and asked to see the liag of the Twentieth 
Iowa. The general pointed it out to her and she stood for 
awhile in silence and meditation. It hung above her reach. 
"May I touch itV"" she said, and General Baker moved a table 
below" it, upon which she climbed, and, pressing the silken folds 
to her bosom and lips, she burst into tears and said: "Pardon 
my emotion, General, but my only boy died under this flag." 

Here, I am told (for I have not counted them), we have 138 
flags of all kinds. They are about to be delivered to the gov- 
ernor of Iowa and his successors in office, as a sacred trust. 
Henceforth they will remain as a memorial of the past and an 
encouragement for the future. In many a church and abbey in 
the old world hang the moldering relics of bygone years and 
our young nation now treasures up her memorials of these con- 
tests none the less brave. 

The Iowa of 1<~>60 with her 674,013 people, has now become a 
commonwealth of 2,000,000 souls. In our prairie state are 
nearly half as many English-speaking people as trod the planet 
in the days of Shakespeare. Our state is young, but the possi- 
bilities of her future fill our hearts with hope and worthy 
j^ride. No blood or treasure has been spared to build and 
cement Iowa, the beautiful, as a part of the great temple of 
national unity. We have no anticipation of her future that we 
do not merge into that greater glory, the sisterhood of all the 
states. To-day closes a chapter of the record of the war. We 
dej^osit these silent yet eloquent memorials forever in the 
capitol. To the governor of our commonw^ealth we deliver 
them for the sacred keeping of coming generations, of a grate- 
ful, an honest, a patriotic and a Christian jjcople. And now, as 
w^e lift our hearts in silent gratitude to Almighty God, let us 
one and all say, "God bless, God bless Old Glory forever." 



,-(3roup f tve-> 

No. I — Thirty-first infantry. 

No. 2 — Thirty-second Infantry. 
No. 3 — Thirty-third Infantry. 
No. 4 — Thirty-fourth infantry. 
No. 5— Thirty-fifth Infantry. 
No. 6 — Thirty-sixtb iQfantry. 
No. 7 — Thirty-eigt)th Infantry. 
No. 8 — Thirty-ninth Ir)fantry. 
No. 9 — Fortieth InfoQtry. 

No. 10— Sixtieth U- S- Infantry. 



GOV. FRANK D. JACKSON 

On Accepiing the Flags in Behalf of the State. 




^==^ VT ETERAN heroes of Iowa: We are all proud of 
^ the great achievements accomplished by the 
state of Iowa during her half century of exist- 
ence, but let me assure you, my veteran 
friends, that in the minds and hearts of this 
great and intelligent people of Iowa, it all 
dwindles into insignificance beside the mighty 
heart-swelling of glory and pride which every 
loyal citizen of Iowa takes in the glorious record of deeds of 
valor of that gallant young army, which over thirty years ago 
she sent forth under the bright folds of these now tattered and 
faded battle flags. 

The guns of Fort Sumter had hardly died away before an 
outraged people resolved to resent the insult made and to save 
the union. How well do I remember the stirring scenes that 
followed in the echoes of that fatal shot. The very air was 
charged with the ^spirit of patriotism. The life and drum fur- 
nished the inspiration of liberty, while millions of loyal citizens 
kept step to the music of the union. Great war meetings were 
held in every community and crowded the largest halls to over- 
flowing. Our cities and towns were thronged with a loyal and 
liberty-loving people. From the farms and workshojjs, from 
the counters and from the offices came the thousands ready to 
sacrifice their all for the glory and perpetuity of their country. 
I can hear those glorious songs of liberty now. I can hear the 
burning words of patriotism. I can see the thousands of 
young men in those great war meetings pushing their way 
down through the excited crowds, and amid storms of enthusi- 
asm march out under the folds of their country's flag and sign 



68 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

the enlistment rolls to go forth to battle for their country's 
honor and the nation's life. 

You, my brave friends, remember it all. You were all there. 
You remember how a few days later the company assembled in 
the public square to be mustered in. Everybody was there for 
miles around to see the boys march away. The fathers and 
mothers were there. The sisters and brothers, and sweet- 
hearts were all there. And amidst the cheers and tears, the 
sobs and heart-breakings, that gallant young company wheeled 
into line, keeping step to the roll of the beating drum and 
under the bright folds of these faded and tattered flags here 
to-day, marched away to battle and to die. 

Four long and weary years the loyal hearts at home waited 
and prayed. With what earnestness did they scan the papers 
for the latest news from the front, and when the news came of 
another great battle, with what breathless eagerness did their 
eyes follow down the long list of dead and wounded to see if 
some of their own loved ones had fallen. How the hearts 
throbbed with joy over the news of a battle won. How they 
sank in anguish and despair at the information of defeat and 
death. And, finally, what joy and happiness fills the land 
when news is received that rebellion is crushed, that the flag 
of our country is saved; that the boys are coming home again. 
And how they waited and hoped and prayed for the return of 
those boys. 

And here they come up the street keeping step to the roll of 
the same old drum; under the folds of the same old flag, now 
riddled and rent w^ith shot and shell and stained with dust and 
blood, and yet a flag redeemed and saved to float forever over 
one country and a united people. Everybody was there with 
outstretched arms to welcome the boys back again. The old 
fathers and mothers were all there. And what a welcome! 
And with it all what sadness and anguish! 

The company wheels into line to be mustered out. Here and 
there are vacant places of those who never returned. Here and 
there are those with one leg or one arm; others sick and emaci- 
ated, just from the hells of Andersonville and Libby. 

Veteran soldiers of Iowa, let me assure you that from the 
beginning to the end of that mighty struggle the great loyal 
heart of Iowa was always with you and for you. It was with 
you just thirty-three years ago to-day when the rebel forces at 
Wilson's Creek formed ten different times and with glistening 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 69 

bayonets charged and recharged over the ground strewn with 
Iowa's dead and wounded, and ten times were hurled back to 
death and defeat by an Iowa regiment which stood there like a 
wall of adamant. How the great heart of Iowa throbbed and 
swelled with joy and pride over this first heroic defense of the 
honor of our state and the glory of our flag. 

The heart of Iowa was with you at Shiloh, wiiere Iowa sol- 
diers fought with a heroism that is nursed only in the cradle of 
liberty, a heroism and bravery never surpassed in all the war 
history of the world. 

It was with you at Donelson, where the flag of an Iowa regi- 
ment weaves in everlasting glory and honor. The heart of Iowa 
was with you at Belmont and Pea Ridge, at Corinth and Prairie 
Grove, at Missionary Ridge and Atlanta. It was with you as 
you laid there in the trenches before Vicksburg. Every heart- 
throb of the great, loyal people of Iowa vibrated down into the 
very center of rebeldom, giving encouragement and cheer to 
the boys from Iowa. That great heart is still with you, veteran 
heroes of Iowa — only it is a bigger and a stronger heart. It's 
the heart of more than two millions of people, extending to you 
here to-day God's blessings along with its lasting love, its grat- 
itude and its honor. 

What a pleasure it would be for me here to-day, had I the 
time, to rehearse the glorious deeds of valor of Iowa regiments 
and Iowa soldiers. My first thought was to select some of the 
principal engagements during the war in which the Iowa troops 
participated, but after a careful investigation of the conspic- 
uous part Iowa troops took in nearly all the great battles of the 
rebellion, I can tell you frankly that my task would be much 
shorter and lighter were I to relate to you that part of the war's 
history in which Iowa troops were not participants. Oat of a 
population of a little over six hundred thousand, the young 
state of Iowa sent forth over seventy thousand to the defense 
of the flag. "It was Iowa soldiers that marched from the Des 
Moines river to the Atlantic ocean, and penetrated the interior 
of every rebel state in the union. It was an Iowa regiment 
that marched into South Carolina, tore down the rebel flag 
from her capitol, hoisted the stars and stripes, and brought the 
treasonable trophy back to Iowa, and it is here to-day, the 
property of our state." 

In the language of a gallant Iowa soldier, from the begin- 
ning until the end the story of Iowa valor was the same as that 



70 BATTLE FLACx DAY. 

of tried comrades from other states. Not greater, for all were 
brave; but the Iowa soldiers were conspicuously so. Their 
fortune kept them at the front; they were the first everywhere. 
These tattered and precious battle flags floated at the front in 
every battle and were always found where the conflict was the 
thickest and the danger greatest. At Wilson's Creek, luka, 
Donelson and Shiloh, at Vicksburg, Atlanta, Allatoona, Chatta- 
nooga and Mobile, wherever Grant and Sherman led they fol- 
lowed, and to victory. They were the heroes, the history 
makers of the state; their deeds will live on forever. From the 
beginning to the end these scarred and tattered flags floated 
over as brave an army as ever trod the face of the earth; over 
a hundred battle fields they waved in triumph. 

Ours was a war for freedom; a war for the unchaining of 
millions of human beings. Fortunate the people to whom is 
given such a glorious opi^ortunity to strike a blow for human 
liberty. And this is the record of but one young and vigorous 
state in behalf of freedom. 

Increase these 135 battle flags by those furnished by other 
loyal states of this union, until they reach into the thousands, 
and then merge them all into one great and glorious flag of 
liberty; increase the awful sacrifice of human life until the 
blood of a million men has been freely poured upon the altar of 
our civil liberty, add to this a treasure of more than two billion 
of dollars, and then you have only the tangible sacrifices made 
by the loyal people of this great union in behalf of liberty. 

What is this great flag of ours for which so much blood and 
treasure has been spent? It is the emblem representing the 
will of sixty millions of American freemen, the uncrowned king 
of this great republic. I saw a regiment of soldiers a few days 
ago assemble for parade. I saw, as a distinction of honor, a 
company selected to escort the colors to the parade grounds 
and present them to the regiment, to the music of "The Star 
Spangled Banner." I saw the flag escorted between two 
platoons of soldiers in front of the line and received at ' 'present 
arms " by the entire regiment — the highest honor that is given 
in military tactics. 

That flag is the uncrowned king of the American army. In 
line of review, when passing before the president of the United 
States or the chief executive of the state, the flag is received 
with greater honor and distinction than is accorded any human 
being on the face of this earth. With uncovered heads it is 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES 71 

received, because it stands for the majesty of law and for the 
will of the people. Surely that flag is the uncrowned king of 
the American people. 

The flag of governments other than republics may represent 
the will of some of the people, but invariably there is a person- 
ality along with it represented in the arbitrary will of the 
ruler. Thank God the stars and stripes has no personality in 
it. It represents only the will of all the people. The chief 
executive, who is selected temporarily to administ r and enforce 
the law, has no more personality in our flag than has the humblest 
citizen who stands beneath its protective folds. It is therefore 
a matter of surprise and regret that after more than a hundred 
years of national existence there are still citizens of this 
republic who fail to comprehend the relations of the citizen to 
the flag. It would seem as if the prejudice of centuries against 
the personality of the flag in despotic forms of government 
still exists here in America, and exists, too, against a flag that 
has no personality whatever. The stars and stripes stand for 
law, and that law made by the people, and in the making of 
that law every voter in this great land has had an exact and 
equal opportunity. How foolish it is then for American citi- 
zens to hurl personal epithets against the chief executive of 
the nation or state who is temporarily charged with the duty 
of maintaining the honor of the flag by enforcing the law 
which the people themselves have made. A wanton violation 
of law, whether by one person or a thousand, is not an insult 
to the executive of a state or nation, but an insult to the people 
themselves who made the law. And that insult is no greater 
so far as defying the will of the people and insulting the 
majesty of their law, in the commission of the crime of murder, 
than it is in the commission of a simple breach of the peace. 
The will of the people has been insulted, the majesty of law 
defied the flag spurned and humiliated, as much in the one 
case as in the other. Violation of law has been fixed by the 
will of the people as the starting point for putting the machin- 
ery in motion for the enforcement of law. Not a violation 
resulting in bloodshed, not a violation that destroys millions of 
l^roperty, but violation of law. No discretionary power is 
given the executive to wait for bloodshed or destruction of 
property before the machinery for enforcement shall be used. 
The commencement of violation is the signal for starting in 
motion the machinery for its enforcement. 



72 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

Unfortunate it is for the American people that there seems 
to be a sentiment among some of them in direct opposition to 
their own laws; a sentiment demanding the executive to wait 
until somebody is killed or some vast amount of property- 
destroyed before the enforcement of law begins. Study and 
reflection on behalf of these people, I am convinced, will result 
in the gradual advancement of this unwise public sentiment in 
some localities, up to those very wise laws, which these same 
people have made, which require the executive to commence 
the enforcement of the law at the instant law is violated. The 
insult to the flag and the people's law is no greater, made by 
the red handed anarchists in placing the torch where it destroys 
life and property, than it is by the so-called industrial army 
traveling through the country intimidating and holding up 
communities for food and shelter. Both are violations of law, 
both wanton insults to the people who made the law. A public 
sentiment which shall demand a rigid enforcement of all law 
by the executive of the nation, of states and of counties, is 
essential to the progress and perpetuity of our American 
government. A public sentiment which fails to demand the 
same swift and rigid enforcement of law against a thousand 
violators that it does against a single individual is a sickly sen- 
timent indicative of governmental weakness, a maudlin senti- 
mentality, dangerous alike to the freedom, happiness, and 
prosperity of the people. I am convinced that the strong and 
healthy sentiment of the American people demands that all the 
laws shall be obeyed, and that they shall be rigidly enforced 
whether it be against a single violator or a mob of ten thousand. 

The blood and treasure expended to preserve this mighty 
fabric of civil liberty, is too awful a sacrifice to have it endan- 
gered now by a weak and sickly sentiment. A government, 
the best ever devised by mankind for the protection of the 
j)eople's liberty, a government which gives the poor man 
better opportunities for advancement in life than any other 
government known to civilization, must not and will not be 
endangered and its usefulness impaired by the failure of a 
small portion of the American people to discern the diiference 
between liberty in its broadest sense and license. Patriotism 
and loyalty in the enforcement of all law by the American 
people means the continual and lasting glory of the American 
republic. 



EXERCISES AND ADDRESSES. 73 

Like an echo of the past come the words of inspiration from 
the immortal Lincoln: "Let reverence of law be breathed by 
every mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let 
it be taught in the schools, seminaries and colleges; let it be 
written in primers, spelling-books and almanacs; let it be 
preached from pulpits and proclaimed in legislative halls, and 
enforced in courts of justice. In short let it become the polit- 
ical re igion of the American people." 

These loved and honored battle flags — how dear they are to 
the heart of Iowa. Once so bright and beautiful, now so ragged 
and tattered and faded. But we love them revere them and 
honor them for what they are and for all they represent. We 
love them because that grand old patriot, Iowa's war governor, 
sent you forth under the folds of these bright flags to battle 
and to die for liberty. We love them because their bright stars 
caught the last dying look of Iowa heroes on the field of glory. 
We love them with all their rags and tatters, because they are 
stained with the blood of Iowa's noblest, bravest and best. We 
love them because they waved in triumph over a hundred battle 
fields and because they always stood for liberty and for right. 

In again assuming the care and protection of these precious 
emblems of liberty, let me assure you, veteran heroes, that 
the state of Iowa fully realizes and appreciates their priceless 
value. Here in low^a's beautiful capitol they shall remain for- 
ever, forming a sacred altar around which will gather, in loving 
remembrance, the grateful hearts of more than two millions of 
peojDle. As long as their faded folds shall hang together they 
shall teach the generations that are to follow, the loyalty and 
bravery of Iowa's soldiers. And when the hand of time shall 
have brushed away the last faded shred of these precious and 
priceless emblems, their memory shall remain forever an inspir- 
ation to deeds of honor, of heroism and of glory. 



Xist anJ> S)escrlption of 



...Jowa Battle jflags.... 



2)eposttc& in tbe Capitol JBuilMng 
Bugust 10, 1S94. 



LIST AMD DESCRIPTION OF IOWA BATTLE FLAGS. 



No 1 National flag, First infantry; inscribed: "Springfield." 
Turned over by state historical society, August, 

1894. 
No 2 National flag, Second infantry: inscribed: "2ndRegt. 
Iowa Vols.- Ofticial report of battle at Ft. Donel- 
son by Colonel Tuttle, says: I cannot omit in this 
report an account of the color guard. Color Ser- 
geant Doolittle fell early in the engagement, pierced 
by four balls and dangerously wounded. The colors 
were then taken by Corporal Page, Company B, 
who soon fell dead. They were again raised by 
Corporal Churcher, Company I, who had his arm 
broken just as he entered the entrenchments, 
when they were taken by Corporal Twombly, 
Company F, who was almost instantly knocked 
down by a spent ball, but immediately rose and 
bore them gallantly to the end of the fight. Not a 
single man of the color guard but himself was on 
his feet at the close of the engagement. 
No. 3. National flag. Second infantry; inscribed: "Fort Don- 

elson, Shiloh and Corinth." 
No 4. National flag. Second infantry. 
No. 5. National flag, Second infantry; inscribed: "Fort Don- 

elson." 

No. 6. Banner, Second infantry. 

No. 7. Banner, Second infantry. 

No 8. National flag, Third infantry; inscribed: "Blue Mills, 
Shiloh,"" "Siege of Corinth, Matamora," "Siege 
of Vicksburg, Jackson."" This flag was captured 
before Atlanta, July 22, 1864, by Cleburne"s division. 



78 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

and presented, by Cleburne to Miss Laura J. Mass- 
engale (now Mrs. Pickett) who returned the flag 
to the adjutant-general of Iowa, August 7, 1883. 

No. 9. National flag, Third infantry; inscribed: "Blue Mills, 
Shiloh, Siege of Corinth. Matamora, Vicksburg, 
Jackson, Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, 
Savannah, the Carol inas." 

No. 10. National flag, Fourth infantry; inscribed: "Pea Ridge, 
March 7 and 8, 1862." 

No. 11. Banner, Fourth infantry. 

No. 12. Banner, Fourth infantry. 

No. 13. National flag, Fifth infantry. 

No. 14. Banner, Fifth infantry; inscribed: "5th Regt. Iowa 
Vet. Vol. Infantry." 

No. 15. Banner, Fifth infantry. 

No. 16. Banner, Sixth infantry; inscribed: "6th Regt. Iowa 
Veteran Vols." 

No. 17. National flag. Sixth infantry. 

No. 18. National flag. Sixth infantry. 

No. 19. National flag. Seventh infantry. 

No. 20. National flag, Seventh infantry. 

No. 21. Banner, Seventh infantry. 

No. 22. Banner, Eighth infantry; inscribed: "8th Iowa Vet- 
eran Regt. Infantry." 

No. 23. National flag. Eighth infantry. 

No. 24. National flag, Eighth infantry; from the citizens of 
Memphis, July, 1864. 

No. 25. Banner, Eighth infantry. 

No. 26. Banner, Ninth infantry. 

No. 27. Banner, Ninth infantry; received from sanitary fair 
of Dubuque, 1864, and presented to the adjutant- 
general September, 1889 

No. 28. National flag. Ninth infantry; extract from history of 
regiment: "On the 22d of May (1863) in line with 
the whole army of the Tennessee, the regiment 
went first up to the assault. Its colors went down 
a few feet from the rebel works after the last one 
of its guard had fallen, either killed or wounded, 
and its dripping folds were drawn thence from 
under the bleeding body of its prostrate bearer." 

No. 29. National flag, Kinth infantry; inscriptions: "Pea 
Ridge, Chickasaw Bayou Arkansas Post, Jackson, 



No. 


30. 


No. 


31. 


No. 


32. 


No. 


33. 


No. 


34, 


No. 


35. 


No. 


36. 


No. 


37. 


No. 


38. 



LIST OF FLAGS. 79 

Siege of Vicksburg, Cherokee, Tuscumbia, Look- 
out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, 
Dallas, New Hope, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Moun- 
tain, Chattahoochie, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Love joy 
and Eden Station, Savannah, Congaree Creek, 
Columbia, Bentonville." 

Banner, Tenth infantry; inscribed: ''Tenth Iowa 
Veterans. '" 

Banner, Tenth infantry; inscribed: "lOth Iowa Vet- 
eran Vols." 

National flag, Eleventh infantry. 

National flag, Eleventh infantry. 

Banner, Eleventh infantry. 

Banner, Twelfth infantry; inscribed: "Our liberties 
we prize and our rights we will maintain. '" 

Banner, Twelfth infantry; inscribed: "12th Iowa Vet- 
eran Vol. infantry." 

National flag, Twelfth infantry; inscribed: "Port Don- 
elson, Shiloh, Corinth." 

National flag. Thirteenth infantry; inscribed: "Siege 
of Corinth, luka, Corinth, Vicksburg, Atlanta, 
Savannah, Columbia, Bentonville, Raleigh." The 
first United States flag raised over the state house 
at Columbia, S. C. , by Lieut. -Col. J C. Kennedy, 
Thirteenth Iowa Veteran Volunteer infantry, Feb- 
ruary 17, 1865. 
No. 39. National flag, Fourteenth infantry; inscribed: "Donel- 

son, Shiloh, Corinth." 
No. 40. Banner, Fourteenth infantry; turned over to adjutant- 
general, under authority from war department 
dated December 6, 1864, by adjutant Fourteenth 
infantry. 
No. 41. National flag, Fifteenth infantry; inscribed: "Cor- 
inth;" turned over to adjutant-general by L. S. 
Tyler, 1891. 
No. 42. National flag, Fifteenth infantry; from L. S. Tyler, 

1891. 
No. 43. National flag, Fifteenth infantry; inscribed: "Shiloh, 
Siege of Corinth, luka, Corinth, Nicka Jack, July 
4th, 5th and 7th, 1864. Vicksburg, Atlanta, July 
21st, 22nd, and 28th, 1864. Mediden, Atlanta and 
Savannah." 



80 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

No. 44. National flag, Fifteenth infantry; inscribed: "Siege 
of Corinth, Corinth, Vicksburg, Monroe, Meriden, 
Bolton's Cross Roads, Big Shanty, Kenesaw, Nicka 
Jack, Chattahoochie, Before Atlanta July 20, 21, 
22, and 28. Jonesboro, Lovejoy's Station, Atlanta, 
Snake Creek Gap, Savannah, Pocotaligo, Salke- 
hatchie, Orangebury, Columbia, Fayetteville, Ben- 
tonville, Goldsboro, N. C." 

No. 45. Banner, Fifteenth infantry; inscribed: "15th Iowa 
Veteran Vols. " 

No. 46. Banner, Fifteenth infantry; from L. S. Tyler, 1891. 

No. 47. Banner, Fifteenth infantry. 

No. 48. National flag, Sixteenth infantry; captured with the 
regiment July 22, 1864, before Atlanta; returned 
to regiment during reunion in 1883 by General 
Govan and turned over to adjutant-general by Col. 
A. H. Saunders in 1884. 

No. 49. National flag. Sixteenth infantry. 

No. 50. Banner, Sixteenth infantry. 

No. 51. Banner, Sixteenth infantry. 

No. 52. National flag. Seventeenth infantry. 

No. 53. National flag. Seventeenth infantry; turned over by 
Col. D. B. Hillis in 1883. 

No. 54. National flag, Seventeenth infantry; inscribed: "Siege 
of Corinth, May 28, 1862; luka, September 19, 1862; 
Corinth, October 3 and 4, 1862; Raymond, May 12, 
1H63; Jackson, May 14, 1863; Champion Hills, May 
16, 1863; Siege of Vicksburg. May 22, 1863; Foxt 
Hill, July 26, 1863; Mission Ridge, November 25, 
1863; Atlanta, July 27 and 28, 1864; Tilton, October 
13, 1864; Savannah, December 21, 1864; Colum- 
bia, February 17, 1865; Bentonville, March 18-22, 
1865." 

No. 55. Banner, Seventeenth infantry 

No. 56. Banner, Seventeenth infantry. 

No. 57. Banner, Eighteenth infantry. 

No. 58. Banner, Eighteenth infantry. 

No. 59. National flag. Eighteenth infantry. 

No. 60. Banner, Nineteenth infantry. 

No. 61. National flag. Nineteenth infantry; "Prairie Grove, 
Ark., Dec. 7th, 1862; Van Buren, Ark , Dec. 28, 
1862; Vicksburg, Miss., July 4, 1863; Yazoo, Miss., 



No. 


63, 


No. 


64, 


No. 


65, 


No. 


66, 


No. 


67, 


No. 


68, 


No. 


69, 



LIST OF FLAGS. 81 

July 13, 1863; Sterling Farm, La., Sept. 29, 1863; 
Brownsville, Texas, Nov. 6, 1M63."' 
No. 62. National flag. Nineteenth infantry; inscribed: "Prairie 
Grove, Ark., Dec. 7, 1862; Van Buren, Ark., Dec. 

28, 1862; Vicksburg, Miss., July 4, 1863; Yazoo 
City, Miss., July 13, 1863; Sterling Farm, Sept. 

29, 1863; Brownsville, Texas, Nov. 6, 1863." 

National flag, Twentieth infantry. 

Banner, Twentieth infantry. 

Banner, Twentieth infantry. 

National flag, Twenty-first infantry. 

Banner, Twenty-first infantry; inscribed: "Port Gib- 
son, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, Hunts- 
ville, Vicksburg, Jackson." 

Banner, Twenty- second infantry. 

Banner, Twenty- second infantry. Received from war 
department, 1894, through Hon. J H. Gear. 

No. 70. National flag. Twenty-second infantry. Received from 
J. C. Schrader, August, 1894. 

No. 71. Banner, Twenty-third infantry. 

No. 72. National flag. Twenty-third infantry; inscribed: "Port 
Gibson May 1st, 1863; Champion Hills, May 16, 
1863; Black River Bridge, May 17, 1863; Millikens 
Bend, June 7, 1863; Vicksburg, May, 18th to 22nd, 
Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; Jackson, July 9th to 16th, 
1863; Fort Esperanza, November 27 and 28, 1863." 

No. 73. National flag, Twenty-fourth infantry; inscribed: 
"Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Jackson, Sabine 
Cross Roads. Opegan, Fishers Hill, Cedar Creek." 

No. 74, National flag, Twenty-fifth infantry. 

No. 75. National flag. Twenty-fifth infantry. 

No. 76. Banner flag. Twenty-fifth infantry. 

No. 77. Banner, Twenty-fifth infantry. 

No. 78. Banner, Twenty-fifth infantry. 

No. 79. Banner, Twenty-sixth infantry. 

No. 80. National flag, Twenty-sixth infantry. 

No. 81. National flag, Twenty-sixth infantry. 

No. 82. National flag, Tw^enty- seventh infantry; inscribed: 
"Little Rock, Sept. 10, 1863; Ft. De Russey, La., 
May 18, 1864; Ditch Bayou, Ark., July 6, 1864; 
Tupelo, Miss., July 14, 1864; Old Town Creek, July 



No. 


83. 


No. 


84. 


No. 


85. 


No. 


86. 


No. 


87. 


No. 


88. 



32 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

15, 1864; Nashville, Dec. 15, 1864; Siege and Cap- 
ture of Blakely, April 2 to 9, 1865." 

Banner, Twenty- seventh infantry. 

Banner, Twenty- seventh infantry. 

National Hag, Twenty -eighth infantry; inscribed: 
"Port Gibson, Edwards Station, Champion Hills, 
Vicksburg, Jackson." 

Banner Twenty-eighth infantry. 

Banner, Twenty-eighth infantry. 

National flag, Tw^enty -eighth infantry; inscribed: 
"Port Gibson Edwards Station, Champion Hills, 
Vicksburg, Jackson, Sabine Cross Roads, Cane 
River, Middle Bayou, Mansura, Yellow^ Bayou, 
Opequan, Fishers Hill, Cedar Creek." 
No. 89. Banner, Twenty-ninth infantry. Turned over by Col. 

Thomas H. Benton, Jr., August 25, 1865. 
No. 90. National flag. Thirtieth infantry. Turned over by 

Col. A. Roberts, June 17, 1865. 
No. 91. National flag. Thirtieth infantry; inscribed: "Battles 
participated in by the 30th Regt Iowa Vol. Infan- 
try, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Battle of 
19th and -l^d of May and Siege of Vicksburg, Jack- 
son, Brandon, Cherokee Station, Lookout Moun- 
tain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Dallas, 
Kenesaw Mountain, Nicka Jack, Before Atlanta 
July I22nd to 1^8th, Jonesboro, Lovejoy's Station, 
Bentonville, and Raleigh." 
No. 92. National flag. Thirty-first infantry. 
No. 93. Banner, Thirty-first infantry. 
No. 94. Banner, Thirty-first infantry. 

No. 95. National flag. Thirty-first infantry. Chickasaw Bayou, 
Arkansas Post, Fourteen Mile Creek, Vicksburg 
assaults 19th and 22d of May, Jackson, Canton, 
Cherokee Station, Tuscumbia, Lookout Mountain, 
Mission Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Dallas, New 
Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochie 
River, Decatur, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy, Little 
River, Savannah, Congaree Creek, Columbia, Ben- 
tonville and Raleigh. 
No. 96. National flag. Thirty-second infantry; Cape Girardeau, 
Bayou Metaire, Fort De Russey, Pleasant Hills, 
Marksville, Yellow Bayou, Lake Chicot, Tupelo, 



LIST OF FLAGS. 8-3 

Old Town Creek, Nashville, Brentwood Hills, Ft 
Blakely; from the ladies of Waterloo, 1864. 

Banner, Thirty-third infantry. 

National flag, Thirty-third infantry; Yazoo Pass, 
Helena, Little Rock, Prairie D'Ann, Poison 
Springs, Jenkins" Perry, Mobile. 

Banner, Thirty-fourth infantry. 

National flag. Thirty -fourth infantry; Chickasaw 
Bluff, Arkansas Post Vicksburg, Yazoo City, Ft. 
Esperanza. 

National flag. Thirty-fourth infantry. 

Banner, Thirty-fifth infantry. 

Banner, Thirty-fifth infantry. 

National flag, Thirty -fifth infantry 

National flag, Thirty -fifth infantry. 

Banner, Thirty- sixth infantry. 

Banner. Thirty- sixth infantry. 

National flag, Thirty-eighth infantry; turned over 
to adjutant-general by Robert McNutt, late sur- 
geon of regiment, in 1888. 

National flag, thirty-ninth infantry; Parker's Cross 
Roads, Tenn. , 186l^ Cherokee Station, Ala., 1863; 
Town Creek, Ala., 1H63; Snake Creek Gap, Ga., 
1864; Lay's Ferry, Ga., 1864; Allatoona, Ga., 
1864; Columbia, S. C, 1865; Bentonville, N. C, 
1865. 
No. 110. National flag, Thirty-ninth infantry; turned over by 

Col. J. M. Griffith, August, isgi. 
No. 111. Banner, Thirty-ninth infantry; turned over by Col. 

J. M. Griffith, August, 1894. 
No. 112. National flag. Fortieth infantry; Helena, Little Rock, 
Elkin's Ford, Prairie D'Ann, Camden, Jenkins' 
Ferry, Marks' Mills Fort Pemberton. 
No. 113. National flag, First colored regiment, infantry (also 

known as Sixtieth U. S. colored infantry). 
No. 114. Banner, unknown; received from adjutant-general of 

Wisconsin. 
No. 115. Banner, First battery; first at Pea Ridge, March 7 
and 8, 1862; Lookout Mountain, Kenesaw Moun- 
tain; Atlanta, July 20, 21, 22 and 28th; first at 
Port Gibson, May 1. 1863; Atlanta, August 11, 
1864; Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, New 



No. 


97. 


No. 


9H. 


No. 


99. 


No. 


100. 


No. 


101. 


No. 


102. 


No. 


103. 


No. 


104. 


No. 


105. 


No. 


106. 


No. 


107. 


No. 


108. 


No. 


109. 



84 BATTLE FLAG DAY. 

Hope, Church, Chickasaw, Arkansas Post, Siege 
of Vicksburg, Chattahoochie River, Jackson, 
Cherokee, Tuscumbia; presented by the city of 
Burlington to First Iowa battery, February 15, 
1864. 

No. 116. Banner, First Iowa battery. "First at Pea Ridge, 
March 7th and 8th, 1862; Chickasaw Bayou, Arkan- 
sas Post, Port Gibson, Jackson, Siege of Vicks- 
burg, Cherokee, Tuscumbia, Lookout Mountain, 
Resaca, Dallas, Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw, Nicka 
Jack, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station." 

No. 117. National flag. Second battery. 

No. 118. National flag, Second battery. (Veteran.) 

No. 119. Banner, Third battery; "Sugar Creek, February 17th, 
Pea Ridge, March 7th and 8th; Helena, July 4th; 
Ft. Pemberton; Little Rock." Presented to bat- 
tery in fall of 1862 by ladies of Milwaukee. The 
coat of arms of Iowa is placed on one side and 
that of Wisconsin on the other. 

No. 120. National flag. First cavalry. 

No. 121. Banner (small), Second cavalry. (Veteran.) 

No. 122. Banner (small). Second cavalry. (Veteran.) 

No. 123. Guidon, Second cavalry. 

No. 124. Guidon, Second cavalry. 

No. 125. Guidon, Third cavalry. 

No. 126. Banner (small), Third cavalry. 

No. 127. National flag. Third cavalry. 

No. 128. National flag, Third cavalry, (Veteran.) "Pea Ridge, 
Kirksville, Vicksburg, Little Rock, Harrisburg, 
Big Blue, Osage, Montevallo, Ala., Mch. 31, 1865; 
Ebenezer Church, April 1, 1865; Columbus, Ga., 
April 16, 1865; Selma, Ala., April 2, 1865." 

No. 129. Guidon, Fourth cavalry. 

No. 130. Banner (small). Fourth cavalry. 

No. 131. National flag, Fourth cavalry. Big Blue October 23, 
1864; Osage, October 25, 1864; Jackson, May 14, 
July 9 to July 14, 1863, February 5, 1864; Haines 
Bluff — captured by Fourth Iowa cavalry, May 19, 
1863; Siege of Vicksburg, 1863; Canton, July, 1863; 
Medidian, February 4, 1864; Tupelo, July 13, 1864; 
Selma, April 2, 1865, and closing battles. 



LIST OF FLAGS. 85 

No. 132. Banner (small), Fifth cavalry. (Veteran.) 

No. 133. Banner (small), Fifth cavalry. 

No. 134. Banner, Seventh cavalry. 

No. 135. Guidon, Eighth cavalry. 

No. 136. Banner, Eighth cavalry. 

No. 137. Guidon, Eighth cavalry. 

No. 138. National flag, Thirty-fifth infantry. Jackson, May 

14; Vicksburg; Jackson, July 16; Henderson Hill; 

Pleasant Hill; Mansuri; Yellow Bayou; Old River 

Lake; Tupelo. 




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